Solution
With such a well-paying task at hand Manager, Wang Joshi accepted the job and promised to do his best. After that, both of them stood up and.
Manager Wang bowed respectfully to Senior Chou, promising to come back to the restaurant the next day to begin work.
Manager Wang, decided to first take a tour of all the branches of the Chou family restaurants in the capital the next day, although they agreed he will start his work with one restaurant at a time, starting with the one they had the meeting as not to bother the rest of the chain if it did not work. Manager Wang went home to his own small establishment.
When Wang Joshi got to his shop, his wife Fu Joshi had just finished attending to a group of children who came to buy pastries when she saw her husband, she was quite happy and went to give him a welcome hug but when she looked up at his face; she noticed the disturbed look on his face and this made her worry; she asked him if anything was the matter; he shook his head and asked if his brothers were free so they could all talk; she went into the kitchen and she found that both her in-laws and their wives had just finished baking a fresh batch of pastries and they were having their lunch while discussing random things. Fu looked back at her husband and nodded.
Wang went into the kitchen with his wife trailing behind him. He asked his brothers and their wives to meet him out front when they were done with their lunch so they could talk while attending to customers; they nodded in agreement, wondering why he looked so serious. Wang then turned around and headed back to the reception.
Wang's brothers and their wives quickly finished their lunch and met at the reception, which also served as the display hall and the front office. Wang looked shaken. They felt it had something to do with his meeting with the head of the Chou family.
When everyone was seated, Wang related the meeting he had with senior Chou to them. Everyone was happy, but they were not very confident in Wang's skills in handling the problem that was the Chou dynasty chain of restaurants and they expressed this.
They all knew that Manager Wang was good at his job, but this one was quite above his level, especially a problem that even the imperial managers couldn't handle.
While the men of the family including Wang himself expressed their doubts on Wang's ability to handle the Chou family restaurant job, the women of the family lead by Wang's wife Fu was of the opinion that, Wang should take the job and do his best to succeed, because this may be an opportunity for greater responsibility and success. Fu concluded by saying that Senior Chou didn't say that he would hang or kill Wang if he failed. He only implied that Wang should do his best. There was no penalty if he failed. All the men nodded their heads, so she continued, saying there was no need to be afraid. If he failed and the chou family wanted their money back, they were more than capable of giving it back.
The men were silent for a while, eventually they agreed. As far as Wang's head was not on the line, he could just do his best without worrying.
Wang felt relieved when they all agreed that he should do his best and that they would do all they could to support him. Wang gave everyone a handshake and to his wife he lifted her off her seat and danced round the front hall as if dancing to a music only he can hear, while everyone looked on smiling. It was one of their esteemed customers, Madam Kim, that brought the happy moment to an end.
The next day, Manager Wang took a tour of most of the Chou's family chain of restaurants. He made observations and took notes of many traditions that needed to change. Manager Wang observed that most of the workers were old and slow. He also noticed that many of the cutlery was ancient and no longer desirable. Further more he observed that the interior decorations were way too old to attract young customers. The meals were very good, but they were served by a bunch of unsmiling middle-aged servers who arrogantly decide what was good for the customer to eat instead of giving the customer the right to decide what they wanted and the Chou family restaurant had been serving the same meals and menu for decades. There were new and interesting menus in town that attracted the younger generation of customers which they needed to adopt on the menu or employ workers who could prepare them. Wang took a stalk of everything they did, the way they did them, their environment and their product and how it was packaged or served. When he was done, he went home and analyzed them. After that, he researched similar businesses and compared them to find out what was being done wrong in his objective business, what needed to change, and what needed to be added.
With, this plan, Manager Wang got to work. With each change that was needed, he forwarded the request to Senior Chou, who give the accountant the permit to execute payment directly to the vendors as requested by Manager Wang. Senior Chou originally wanted to give Wang an amount of money to execute any changes that were needed. But Wang declined, saying that he preferred the Senior accountant Wu to handle any payments required for proper accountability. Wang's sincerity impressed senior Chou.
Wang continued working relentlessly to improve the quality and sales of the Chou family restaurant to the point within a few weeks, the restaurant's patronage increased. Business started picking up, more customers came and more people began hosting events and asking for their catering services. Each change Manager Wang Carried out in his branch of the Chou family restaurant, Senior Chou insisted on the rest of the Chou family restaurant to follow suite.
To Wang Joshi, the progress was not enough, and he felt he was missing an important aspect.
When Senior Zhang Chou came to thank him in his office, he told Senior Chou that he was not yet satisfied with the progress made and that he was still digging deeper to achieve greater success. The young man's zeal for excellence and high results quite impressed senior Chou. Senior Chou asked him how he was going to find out more ways to increase the customer base, Manager Wang smiled and said he was going to spy on as many successful restaurants as possible, that way he could see what was still lacking in the Chou chains. They shook hands, and manager Wang left to make good on his promise.
That afternoon, Manger Wang took a walk along very popular streets in town that housed the first on the list of the most popular restaurant in town, compiled by his brothers. Manager Wang only visited three restaurants on his list before the end of the workday. The next day, he continued with the fourth restaurant on the list. As Wang walked out of the fourth restaurant on the list, he found a common occurrence this time; he found that they all had either a storyteller or a musician of a specific instrument that entertained the customers while they ate or sat around waiting to be served. With this realization, Manager Wang changed his mission from looking for what made more people come to the restaurants on his list, to how to get a good storyteller or a good musician that could play very rear and good musical instruments. Wang was very pleased with his findings. He closed for the day and went home. At home, he discussed his findings with his wife and brothers. One of his brothers gave him the address of a wonderful storyteller who was grossly underpaid and was desperate to get a better-paying job so that he could bring his mother from the village to the city of the province. Wang promised to visit that restaurant the following day. Instead of scouting through the city for a good musician or story teller he could Poche, Manager Wang walked directly in to the restaurant his brother recommended the previous day and took a seat as he noted his environment. The restaurant was as he was previously been informed by his brother, their services were third class and their food was poorly prepared and presented, the only reason people came was because of their storyteller, he was quite talented but people believed he was poorly paid. That information was an added advantage to Manager Wang. If the storyteller was as good as he was told but was not well paid, it would be easy to have him work for the Chou restaurant.
With this thought in mind, Manager Wang took his seat. The whole place was packed with customers eating, drinking tea or taking some kind of beverage while listening attentively to the storyteller who had a very fine enticing voice that made the listeners want to listen more and which made it easier to imagine the events of the story he was telling. From the plot of the story, Manager Wang realized the storyteller had a very creative imagination.
Manager Wang was seated where he could see the storyteller. Indeed, the man looked underpaid. His clothes made him look like a beggar, clean but well worn.
At the end of the very long but very interesting story that had most of the customers wishing the story teller could continue, Manager Wang had had two cups of tea.
After his last drop of tea, Manager Wang left his seat and walked up to the storyteller, who was straightening out his clothes and taking the coins given to him by some customers that were preparing to head out. When Wang got close to the storyteller, he cleared his throat to get the man's attention. Li turned round and saw Wang right behind him. He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head sideways in an inquiry gesture Manager Wang began by complementing Li's skills in storytelling and asking if he learnt it in school. To Manager Wang's surprise, the man said he learnt it from his mother, who was a well-known storyteller in his village. Manager Wang nodded, then moved closer to Li and held out his hand to Li as he introduced himself. As soon as Li took Wang's hand, Wang placed his left hand on Li's shoulders and started leading him out of the restaurant. When they were safely out of the restaurant, he asked the storyteller if he would like to work in a more classy restaurant with more pay and better working condition as a storyteller? The story teller was quite perplexed but answered none the less, stating that he has been praying for such an opportunity to befall him. Manager Wang nodded and continued. He told Li that he was the current manager of the Chou restaurant in town.
Li was quite impressed and scared, but he stood still to know what such a high-class man wanted with him when he could have gotten more renowned story tellers in town.
Seeing that Li was listening to him, Manager Wang continued by asking him how much Li was being payed. Li honestly answered five pieces of copper coins a day. Manager Wang could not be more shocked than he was at that point in time. For all the business the young man brought to the proprietor, Li was being paid five pieces of copper which could buy nothing other than two good meals a day. It wasn't even enough to save or take care of oneself. Shaking his head, Manager Wang asked the young man in front of him if he would like to come work with him as a storyteller in one of the Chou family restaurant with more money, better and more conducive accommodation and other facilities. Li quickly accepted, but he calmly asked the Manager exactly how much he wished to pay him.
Manager Wang smiled and said that he would be paid him fifteen silver pieces. Li's eyes almost popped out of his head at the amount, he had to take a double look at the Manager in front of him to see if he was serious, when he saw that the man wasn't joking, he asked why he would spend so much on a common story teller, Manager Wang smiled and said that he should not underestimate his work and that as a storyteller he was the soul of the restaurant. Then he gave him a card that had an address and told him to be there at seven the following morning. As Wang left, a highly excited Li and started heading home.
A jovial patron of the Chou restaurant who was the son of an official in the imperial capital caught up with Wang Joshi and said "I saw you talking with the storyteller from the third class restaurant, are you plotting to steal him for the Chou restaurant?" when Wang nodded the man gave Wang a friendly slap on his back saying that it was a good plan and everybody would be happy with it.
Manager Wang went back to the Chuo Dynasty restaurant after that and told the assistant manager Lio to tell the artist working for the Chou Dynasty restaurant to quickly put up an advertisement in front of the restaurant informing customers and prospective customers that a great storyteller would entertain the guest starting from the next day. Wang left for home as the assistant manager Lio went out to seek the artist.